In November of 2025, I attended a select board meeting in St. George that had been called by a group of folks who self-identified as adults, parents, Christians and concerned community members to ask the town to ban an 8-year-old, trans, third-grade student from the municipally run girls’ basketball team. 

A range of opinions were shared by residents and the meeting ended with a 3-2 vote to allow the child to participate. One comment that night stopped me cold: “People are trying to make us feel bad by saying that trans kids are more likely to kill themselves, but it’s not going to work.”

Someone in our community said, in a public meeting, that the potential of dead children wouldn’t make them “feel bad” about their support of a proposed hate-based exclusion. 

I have been so deeply disturbed by this and haven’t known what to do with the knowledge that there are people in my community that have complete disregard for the dignity, humanity and lives of our children. They don’t care if children live or die.

Is this who we are? Apparently. 

Analysis shows that 700,000-plus U.S. teens identify as transgender non-conforming and more than 25% have reported suicide attempts. That’s 181,000 children.

Young people are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their gender identity but are placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatized in society and in their communities.

The right for children to live and to thrive should not be up for debate.

Jessie Davis
Rockland